


Overcoming the Night Terrors

by cubile



Category: Asoiaf - Fandom, game of thrones
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:42:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1986804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cubile/pseuds/cubile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Stark kids have suffered too much in their short lives. This is the story of them moving past that, together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overcoming the Night Terrors

**Author's Note:**

> After war fluff. Basically everyone lives somehow and are back home. There are a few changes, namely Bran can walk and Robb never got married.

It was Arya and Jon who first started sleeping in the same bed. It was soon after the war when they were back in the rebuilt Winterfell. The maids noticed it first, but then again, the maids always notice first. They spread whispers around of impropriety but those whispers never reached the ears of any of the Starks, not even Jon's bastard ones. Arya would slip out into the halls during the cold nights and dance along until she came to Jon's room with Nymeria padding at her heels. She would crawl under the warm furs and nudge him with her hands until he gave her room and Nymeria would flop in front of the dying fire next to Ghost. They'd wake each other accidentally in the night, shaking and sweating from the night terrors that plagued them and would only calm down once woken and holding on to one another with their wolves in easy reach. There was nothing improper about it, it was simply two siblings helping each other recover from the horrors they had seen, and the terrible things they had down.  
It was Robb who caught on first, but only once Arya stopped trying to sleep in her room altogether, instead retreating straightaway to Jon's room with him. When he woke one night, shaking and whimpering, when even Grey Wind couldn't lull him back into an uneasy rest, he went instead to Jon's room, to assure himself of his siblings safety. He shuffled in beside Arya, sandwiching her between the boys. She would think later that it was the first night she didn't wake up at all, instead sleeping through the night with her two older brothers beside her. Now that she didn't worry about waking every few hours she more easily assured herself that it would be fine if she snuck out to see Gendry who was now working in the forge at Winterfell. Her brothers noticed, of course, but resolved not to say anything as Arya had easily become the most feared swordsman at Winterfell given her time training with the Faceless Men.  
For a long time it was just the three of them together in Jon's bed, having tried sleeping alone only to find the nightmares would come back. But it couldn't just be them forever as much as they liked it. Bran noticed that Summer would often disappear to sleep somewhere else, and followed him to see the wolves jumbled together in a heap before the fire and three of his older siblings tangled together in a bed. Bran joined them, sleeping soundly as he had no greendreams that night. He slept with them often but, not wanting to intrude, stayed away more than not. It was not until Arya came into his room and dragged him down the hall where Robb told him he was always welcome in the bed, they had plenty of room. Bran didn't sleep another night by himself.  
It was a year and a half after Arya and Jon first shared a bed when Rickon and Shaggy dog tiptoed in on soft feet. No matter that multiple people were already sharing the bed, Rickon wiggled in as well. It was decided between them that they would get another bed pushed against the first one so they had a wider space to sleep. Robb had Hodor move his, when no one was watching, for they still didn't know and the children, though they really shouldn't be called children anymore, had no interest of telling them. Rickon liked to curl into Robb's back, fitting there perfectly and still not disturbing the places they had set. Jon was close to one edge of the beds, with room for one other person to fit in the gap, an arm usually draped over Arya who still slept cuddled between Robb and him. Bran, not cursed with nightmares, only greendreams, slept a little away from Rickon in the middle of the second bed.  
Sansa was the last Stark to catch on, discovering them once she saw Hodor moving the bed into Jon's room. She waited a while however to move into the room, feeling a bit of an outcast. She had always been the summer child of the bunch, hardening during the war, but a summer girl none the less. It was a night that her dreams were stronger than usual, the dreams, or rather nightmares, of her getting raped when the Hound didn't come to her aid in time, of her whole family dying and having to watch over and over again, that she finally abandoned her fears and trotted softly into Jon's room to curl up beside Bran. The next night however, Bran was greendreaming and thrashing around so much she couldn't possibly settle next to him. She opted instead, with distaste however, to curl into Jon's body on the edge of the bed. She found herself in the arms of her half brother the next morning and decided she didn't mind at all. So that was where she slept, without a passing thought after Robb had gotten Arya to drop it after Arya's initial shock at Sansa and Jon's budding kinship, seeing as Sansa had always been proper and had disliked Jon the most because of the circumstances of his birth.  
The growing relationships between their children were noted with mild interest by their parents but they did not worry or even notice the one room they all shared. It was not until Jon accidentally hit Sansa with black pudding instead of Arya that he was aiming for that The Lord and his Lady took a real interest in the children's newfound closeness. They had assumed that Sansa would yell or storm out or even scream for her parents, but none of those were the case. She instead turned slowly to face Jon and with steady determination that she threw pudding back at him. Jon sloppily licked the pudding off his face and smiled cheekily, while Sansa wrinkled her nose at him and let Robb wipe it off. Cat and Ned had almost forgotten it when he sent six maids to wake his children. One of the maids piped up and asked why six maids were to be sent when the children all slept in the same room. Catelyn was furious with the children, screeching about how improper it was while Ned was just thoughtful.  
Soon it was apparent to the siblings that Arya was deep in love with Gendry and though they couldn't get married for he was a bastard, the siblings let Gendry join their snuggle fest during the night, sneaking him in through a window. And soon it became that all the children were falling in love, but they would still sleep in the same room, in a pile on the beds. If their partners weren't okay with that, they didn't understand their need for the contact between the siblings. Margaery, who was courting Sansa, didn't mind them and would often climb in with them when she was visiting. Though Robb and Jon had many partners, they never stuck for long and the boys seemed to give up for a while. At least, to the outside world. In the little bedroom the six of them shared it was obvious that Robb and Jon were deep in love. With each other. Even Bran finally found someone who loved him and slept in their wolfpile, and that persons name was Jojen Reed.  
The Stark children eventually did move into separate rooms, though ones within 10 feet of one another so they could reach them in a hurry. They still slept all in their pack, Arya and Jon, Robb, Bran, Rickon, and Sansa. Gendry sometimes too, and Margaery, Jojen and eventually Shireen when Rickon fell for her and her for him. No one had to know of the human pack, huddling away in their little den, patrolled by actual direwolves, and the reason why they first started sharing a bed and a room, for no one wants to admit that they were scared of the horrors long gone.


End file.
